I recently came across an interesting book “Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary“, edited by Steven Weisman (PublicAffairs; 671 pages; $35). I came to know Moynihan (better known as “Pat”) as a young journalist when he was the U.S. ambassador in India in the early 1970s. Pat was described as “the nation’s best thinker among politicians since Lincoln, and its best politician among thinkers since Jefferson”.
Pat served four presidents—John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford—as adviser, speechwriter and ambassador, in Delhi and at the United Nations. He represented New York for 24 years in the United States Senate. When he retired, one scholar said he brought to that job “luminous intellect, personal conviction, deep historical knowledge, the eye of an artist and the pen of an angel, and above all, an incorruptible devotion to the common good”, states The Economist while reviewing the book.
Now a New York Times journalist, Steven Weisman has edited a 671-page collection of Pat’s letters, diary entries, reports to his New York constituents (addressing them as “Dear New Yorker”) and what amount to state papers written for his four presidents. Almost every page is enlivened by a sharply minted phrase, an enchanting vignette, a joke or a shrewd inversion of the conventional wisdom. More here…
Another scholar recalls: “Soon after Pat Moynihan had been appointed Ambassador to India by President Nixon, he learned that a vast sum of Indian rupees had accumulated in a US government account from the sale of American wheat to India. These ‘PB 484’ fund, as they were called, could not be exchanged for dollars, but they could be used to purchase business-class air tickets. So Pat instituted what he called the ‘Star Series’ through which the State Department would buy tickets for his friends willing to give lectures in India. I qualified.” More here…
Pat began his life as a shoeshine boy. An old interview brings out a wonderful profile of the man. See here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.